Normally, short- and medium-haul flights in Europe don't have any in-flight entertainment but this could change soon. German Lufthansa has recently started a test of its new service called "my mediaworld". It gives passengers Hollywood-quality entertainment during their flights and Lufthansa is currently trialing the service on its 22.6 years old Airbus A320 D-AIPP. Like most other short- and medium-haul aircrafts, this A320 hasn't have any in-flight entertainment equipment, like screens, etc. but that's not necessary anymore since the my mediaworld entertainment system allows to use W-LAN-enabled devices such as laptops, tablets or smartphones to play movies. Lufthansa is even offering dedicated iOS and Android apps while Laptops need Silverlight installed (bad luck for Windows RT users).

And how is my mediaworld working? As soon as the crew gives the go-ahead to turn on electronic devices after takeoff (keep in mind to put your smartphone into flight mode before boarding/shutting down), passengers can start up their laptop, smartphone or tablet. The A320 is using a W-LAN called "my mediaworld" with which the device needs to connect then. Laptop user will then be automatically redirected to www.BoardConnect.aero while smartphone and tablet users may open the previously installed "my mediaworld" app; and that's it. Now the passengers can browse through the my mediaworld offer and select from three great Hollywood movies, many interesting TV series, a moving map, five radio channels, 25 destination guides and even approximately 30 digital newspapers and magazines (dailies, regional to international).

During the current and upcoming test flights, Lufthansa will collect information on the user friendliness, relevance, technology and contents of the new system via a survey in the program booklet and Lufthansa wants to know: "What is your opinion of 'my mediaworld'?" and "Should Lufthansa offer 'my mediaworld' in the future?" Just fill out the survey on board and hand it to one of our flight attendants.

UPDATE: As Lufthansa mentioned yesterday on Twitter, the service is currently tested on routes from and to Munich. As a colleague just told me, he recently flew the aircraft on the route from Munich to Cologne. However, since it was a 6-something red-eye flight, he was way too tired to test it.